• There have been jitters about few classes, dormitories and laboratories in schools. Even with the CS’ announcement of the development vote, the jury is still out on whether the amount is enough.
• Government to roll out a Sh8 billion programme to build classrooms and laboratories in 110 sub-counties located in 30 counties next year.
Image: FILE
This year, a total of 1,083,456 candidates sat the KCPE Examination.
Of these, 543,582 (50.17%) were boys and 539,874 (49.82%) girls.
In 2018, 1,052, 344 candidates sat the examination.
Nairobi, Kakamega and Nakuru counties recorded the highest number of candidates compared to Lamu, Isiolo and Samburu which had the lowest.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said the number of candidates who were absent increased by 2,322 (58.78%), from 3,950 in 2018 to 6,272 in the 2019 KCPE examination.
The number of under-age candidates increased from 15,747 (1.48%) in 2018 to 20,086 (1.84%) in 2019.
The counties that had the highest number of candidates with under-age candidates were: Bungoma (1,770), Bomet (1,111), and Kericho (1,144).
Three top counties with the highest cases of over-age candidates (above 19 years) were: Turkana (4,013), Garissa (1,957) and Kilifi (3,716).
Magoha said during the 2018 KCPE examination, more than 50 cases of teenage pregnancies and births were reported, but the Ministry – through its field officers and critical stakeholders – mounted a robust awareness campaign in all parts of the country in a bid to deal with the negative trend.
This year there were 10 cases of pregnant candidates.
“I am happy to report that this campaign appeared to have helped the country to drastically reduce the number of cases reported this year, which stood at 10,” he said.
This, he said, can be attributed to collective efforts by parents, teachers and education stakeholders who offered their support to help in alleviating the cases of teenage pregnancies.
This year, the top candidate scored 440 marks.
The number of candidates scoring 400 marks and above dropped to 9,770 (0.90%) from 11,559 (1.10%) last year.
But there was a rise in the number of candidates scoring between 301 and 400 marks, growing to 243,320 (22.46%) from 223,862 (21.27%) last year.
The top candidate in the country was Andy Michael Munyiri of Damacrest Schools, Thogoto with 440 marks.
Three candidates tied in the second position, two of them girls from public schools.
These were; Flavian Onyango of Chakol Girls (439 marks), June Cheptoo Koech of Sangalo Central (439 marks) and Sean Michael Ndung’u of Kitengela International School who scored 439 marks as well.
“That public school candidates matched their private school candidates is proof that our Free Primary Education Programme has come of age and that our teachers are excelling in spite of the higher enrolment. It is also evident that girls are competing favourably with boys for the top academic honours,” Magoha said.
This year also saw a total of 2,407 candidates with special needs sit the KCPE examination.
The first candidate in this category scored 414 marks out of the highest possible 500 marks.
Some 211 candidates scored between 300 and 400 marks in this category.
With regards to exam irregularities, Magoha said only four candidates were disqualified over impersonation.
This number equals last year’s, where four candidates were also disqualified for impersonation.
He said action was taken before any cheating could happen.
As a result, some 56 teachers are under investigation, while 10 other people, including eight examination officials were arrested over involvement in various examination malpractices.
“It is evident from the administration of the KCPE examination that the traditional forms of cheating have been wiped out. Our vigilant measures of examination administration have continued to assist us to nip in the bud some of the cases that would have led to cheating,” Magoha said.
FORM ONE SELECTION
So far, the ministry has embarked on the secondary school placement exercise of all those who sat the KCPE exam.
The Education ministry said it has developed water-tight criteria to ensure the process is fair, objective, transparent and in keeping with all forms of meritocracy.
Magoha launched the exercise on December 2 at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development KICD.
He said a total of 1,083,456 candidates sat 2019 KCPE, out of which 1,075,201 have been placed in secondary schools.
This is after excluding inmates, overage and refugees in camps.
“Admitting all this will complete our plan of admitting all candidates in line with the 100% transition from primary to secondary education as required by Article 53(1)(b) of the Kenya Constitution on provision of free and compulsory basic education to every Kenyan child,” Magoha said.
He maintained that this year they have gone strictly by merit and students’ choices.
As a result, some 33,009 candidates will join national schools, 184,816 Extra-Country, 188,454 County and 669,145 Sub-county schools.
Some 777 special needs candidates have been placed in their choice regular schools. In total, 1,246 special needs students have been placed in various categories of schools - either special needs schools or regular schools.
Form One Reporting Dates
Magoha said his Ministry is determined to ensure that Form One students report to school as early as possible to embark on their studies.
He said parents should therefore use the next four weeks to make necessary arrangements in readiness for the new academic year.
“Reporting dates for all Form One students in all categories of schools shall be 13th January, 2020. The last reporting date shall be 17th January 2020,” he said.
CHALLENGES
Despite all these measures, there still lie barriers to secondary education that the education sector is grappling with.
Ministry officials have been directed to file accurate daily returns on the status of reporting to schools to ensure 100% transition.
But Magoha said due to skewed candidates’ choices or unavailability of vacancies in home counties, the Ministry placed 30,000 candidates in schools they had not picked, although they reflected their level of scores.
A few candidates opted to select one or two choices of secondary schools against the required number of 11, thus limiting placement to their preferred choices.
The Ministry however opted to place such candidates in schools matching their marks which had capacity, even if they had not chosen them.
“The government is determined to address some of the expected challenges of the 100 per cent transition. As a result, the government – together with development partners under the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project – will roll out a Sh8 billion programme to build classrooms and laboratories in 110 sub-counties located in 30 counties next year,” the CS said.
These classes he said will ease the pressure on the existing facilities in secondary schools.
Last year, though government set aside Sh16 billion to help implement the 100 per cent transition to secondary schools.
The amount was to cater for all the 1,032,334 pupils who sat the exam.
Early in the year, then Education CS Amina Mohamed launched a campaign to locate some 130,000 candidates who had not joined Form One.
Through the campaign, the ministry has prepared data packets bearing the names and locations of the students who are not in school.
"No child will be left behind and this data will be shared with local administrators who will team up with directors from the ministry in this final push," the CS said.
According to the current NEMIS data, 640 candidates opted to repeat Standard Eight while 2,299 joined vocational colleges.
A rapid analysis of the reasons for the failure to hit the 100 per cent transition mark shows that there have been challenges arising from teenage pregnancies, early marriages, insecurity and prohibitive cultural practices.
Others are indirect costs of secondary education and extreme poverty in households, especially in arid and semi-arid areas.
Despite all these efforts, there still has been apprehension among education sector players regarding the implementation of the full transition programme, especially owing to the infrastructural shortage in schools.
There have been jitters about few classes, dormitories and laboratories in schools. Even with the CS’s announcement of the development vote, the jury is still out on whether the amount is enough.
Pressure due to increased student numbers is also expected when it comes to the learner to teacher ratio.
The CS was silent on how the human resource aspect will be addressed.
Parents have also raised concerns over excessive fees and levies charged by some schools as was seen in this year’s case.
Teacher-student Ratio
The Kenya National Union of Teachers said it is is unfair for the government to call for 100 percent transition yet teachers are not empowered to deal with the high numbers.
Secretary general Wilson Sossion said the teachers have no resources to deal with the high admissions.
His sentiments were echoed by the Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia, who said said the country has a deficit of more than 87,000 teachers.
Macharia however challenged the current teachers under employment to be innovative in dealing with the pressure.
Early this year, Macharia told Parliament’s education committee that Treasury was to blame for not releasing funds to enable the commission hire 20,000 teachers annually to plug the deficit.